historicafandomcom-20200222-history
John Bell Hood
'John Bell Hood '(29 June 1831 – 30 August 1879) was a Lieutenant General of the Confederate States Army. Hood lost his left arm and right leg in the American Civil War, fighting in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia as the commander of the Army of Tennessee. Hood took over Braxton Bragg's army after Bragg's repeated failures in the Western Theater, only to preside over a retreat from Atlanta and two major defeats at Franklin and Nashville. He was without a command when the war ended, and he became an insurance salesman in the years following the war. Biography Early life Hood was born in Owingsville, Kentucky, and graduated from West Point 44th of a class of 52 in 1853. He was nearly expelled after getting 196 points out of a permissable 200 demerits. He graduated with James B. McPherson (whom he would later kill), John M. Schofield, and George H. Thomas, who would teach him artillery, and all of these three men would become Union generals and his opponents soon after. In 1857 he transferred to the southwest with Albert Sidney Johnston and Robert E. Lee and was wounded in the Battle of Devil River with the Comanche tribe. American Civil War in 1863]] After the Battle of Fort Sumter and the start of the American Civil War in 1861 he joined the Confederate States Army due to his loyalty to his adoptive state of Texas; Kentucky was neutral. On 30 September he was given a brigade of troops, the Texas Brigade, which served in the Army of Northern Virginia during the major battles of the Eastern Theater. Hood fought in the major battles in Virginia such as the Peninsula Campaign, Seven Days Battles, and the Battle of Gettysburg, during which he was wounded by an artillery shell at Devil's Den. Hood's left arm was amputated due to the severity of the wound, the first of two limbs that he would lose during the war. Western Theater On 18 September 1863 he joined Braxton Bragg in the Western Theater and led the attack on the Union gap in the Battle of Chickamauga, contributing to the victory over William S. Rosecrans' army. He proceeded to fight in the campaign between Bragg and William T. Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign of 1864, and when Johnston was relieved on July 17, Hood took over the Army of Tennessee. Hood attempted many times to break out of Atlanta in the Battle of Peachtree Creek, the Battle of Ezra Church, and the Battle of Atlanta, during which McPherson died, and Hood regretted his death. On 2 September 1864 he destroyed Atlanta and retreated. He tried to coax Sherman into invading Tennessee, but Schofield instead met him and Sherman advanced up to North Carolina by April 1865. Hood's army was defeated first in the Battle of Franklin, and then destroyed at the Battle of Nashville. On 23 January 1865 he was forced to cede command to Richard Taylor and he attempted to join the army in Texas. But Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered, and Hood surrendered at Natchez, Mississippi, on 31 May 1865. After parole, he was President of the Life Association of America, an insurance business. Over the last ten years of his life, Hood fathered 11 children. After Hood died of yellow fever in New Orleans in 1879, his destitute children were adopted by various southern and northern families. Gallery John Bell Hood1.jpg|John Bell Hood colorized General John Bell Hood's Uniform.jpg|John Bell Hood's Uniform Frock Coat #1 General John Bell Hood's Hat.jpg|John Bell Hood's Slouch Hat General John Bell Hood's Uniform2.jpg|John Bell Hood's Uniform Frock Coat #2 Category:Confederates Category:Generals Category:Confederate generals Category:Americans Category:English-Americans Category:1831 births Category:1879 deaths Category:Protestants Category:People from Kentucky Category:Dutch-Americans Category:Democratic Party members Category:Kentucky Democrats Category:American conservatives Category:Conservatives Category:People from Owingsville, Kentucky